This fall Ross was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.” The Rest Is Noise is a voyage into the labyrinth of modern music, which remains an obscure world for most people. While paintings of Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock sell for a hundred million dollars or more, and lines from T. S. Eliot are quoted on the yearbook pages of teenagers everywhere, twentieth-century classical music still sends ripples of unease through audiences. At the same time, its influence can be felt everywhere. Atonal chords crop up in jazz. Avant-garde sounds populate the soundtracks of Hollywood thrillers. The narrative goes from Vienna before the First World War to Paris in the twenties, from Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia to downtown New York in the sixties and seventies.

Lev Grossman of Time magazine said, “Ross is a supremely gifted writer who brings the political and technological richness of the world inside the magic circle of the concert hall, so that each illuminates the other.”

The end result is not so much a history of twentieth-century music as a history of the twentieth century through its music. Musicians ranging from Bjצrk to Emanuel Ax have hailed it as “utterly nourishing” and a “masterpiece;” Ax went on to say, “In words that are beautiful, passionate, witty, and utterly compelling, Alex Ross has written a true rarity—a book about music that makes you want to run and listen to every note he talks about.”

At this event, Ross will incorporate works of art from the Museum’s collections into his discussion.

“The title I chose . . . played off Hamlet’s last words (“The rest is silence”) and, more widely, the perception that classical composition devolved into noise as the twentieth century went on.” —Alex Ross

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984One Responsehttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.iliveindallas.com%2Fart-letters-live-presents-alex-ross-music-critic-for-the-new-yorkerArt+%26+Letters+Live+Presents+Alex+Ross%2C+music+critic+for+the+New+Yorker2009-01-31+01%3A32%3A23Jennifer+Conleyhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.iliveindallas.com%2F%3Fp%3D984
to “Art & Letters Live Presents Alex Ross, music critic for the New Yorker”

Some nations that are left behind on the way to success should not lose hope and try to learn from the developed nations. They should sort out the reasons by which they have lost the plot and left behind from the civilized nation. And they can rule the world.

About the Author

Jennifer Conley is a co-founder of ILiveinDallas.com. She promotes and reports on the art and cultural events and happenings around Dallas. For her day job she runs an incubator for tech startups in DFW called the Gravity Center. Follow Jennifer Conley on Twitter.